2011-02-06 - Dark Viper: Capturing a Speedster
With the technological issues combined with the daily life, Clinton isn't doing much better than Hobb's Bay. Just last week, you took down a robbery. One of them mentioned something about someone called Markus. "Markus is looking for you," with a bloody smile before you knock the wannabe thief out. Some questions lead you only a street away from where the robbery at the pawn shop was. The warehouse appears abondoned at first, but there is actually someone standing outside the back door playing with a knife. Despite her powerset...and unlike Bart Allen...Liberty Belle is not often inclined to rush into a situation. Or rather, she can be her own scout, at her speed. Guy playing with knife, check. Does this warehouse have any windows she can check out? Up much higher, roof access. The front entrance made of a set of garage doors appear worn and rusted. There is muted light inside filtering through the dirty glass of the windows which are located along the third floor level. The windows are small, not able to fit a normal grown adult. The information said Markus could be found here, but nothing beyond that. Everyone seemed to not know anything, other than Markus had some friends in 'low places' and he really wanted to meet Liberty Belle. He had a photo of you too. A photo?! That isn't such a good thing to have taken of you this day and age with facial recognition programs. Course, they don't share the fact that the photo is blurry and can't be used for that, since it is bait. Commonly forgotten? Liberty Belle can fly. Without slowing down, she leaps upwards, to land silently on the roof. If she's going to sneak in, best to use the entrance they are less likely to suspect. The back door would actually be the WORST choice. Liberty Belle now looks through the skylight window atop a seemingly abondoned warehouse. There is a foggy view through it, unclear. The muted light does little to illuminate the situation. Though it is strange. There are a few light bulbs in the upper third level, and the second level appears very dark. Within the center where the skylight looks straight down there is emptiness all the way to the first floor there seems to be one bright bulb swinging over someone tied to a chair. It is quiet, with only the guard at the back door, playing with his knife. All seems quiet, and the sudden arrival of Liberty Belle silhouetted against the moonlight, but cloudy night sky. Trying to be as quiet as possible, Liberty opens the skylight and then drops through it. She doesn't immediately land, though. From her angle...can she see anything that might indicate, oh, motion detectors criss crossing the floor? That's just it, nothing seems modern. It is quiet and still. As Liberty drops to the ground in her semi-flight, it seems...too easy. Yes, that's it, too easy. And who is the kidnapee? Suddenly, the person tied to the chair looks up, and grins wickedly. It's a youthful face, perhaps a middle schooler. As soon as he looks up though, everything seems to explode into motion. The darkness on the second level is soon revealed to have people and nets are soon tossed toward the lower level, nets with metal wiring for reinforcement. A gear is heard shifting as it jerks the chair across the warehouse bottom to one side of the warehouse with balls suddenly being rolled out over the floor from the darkness edges on the first level. Hundreds of small balls which would make footing dangerous. The sudden noise and movement is obvious to those just outside the warehouse. From a bit of distance, the shape of Liberty Belle caught the attention of one young woman who has recently been quite active in the city at night, roaming the streets without real direction but with certain purpose. It is not often that she is high enough to take notice of people moving about on rooftops, but tonight she had to climb up quickly to avoid the police who have been searching for her. Every witness to her departure from a scene of vigilantics has been able to provide them with more clues as to what she looks like. Her interest in the superheroine is mainly in that she is dressed in distinctive clothing, and those who wear distinctive clothing of the body shape revealing style tend to either be insane in this sort of weather or on their way to a very dangerous situation. Danger... attracts her. She rushes to cover the distance, leaping across gaps and ending up on the warehouse of broken skylight lock, peering down inside to get a glimpse of what can be seen, then going down in much the same manner as Liberty Belle did, though with much more adherence to gravity. She sees the nets thrown on her way down. She sees the metal balls as she touches ground, and she does her best to avoid getting caught completely. See, the thing they did not allow for *was* the flying. Problem is...Liberty isn't used to fighting while airborne. It's not a power she's entirely comfortable with. And it doesn't stop the nets...one of which catches her foot, pulling her downward onto the ground. She tries to drop and roll, to get free that way. It's unsure immediately how successful she is. See. This is why she needs allies. Sigh. The nets are tangling and not so easily broken. The balls roll out and make footing difficult. The only retreats for Cassandra is right into the gangsters, and one is already giving a yell of warning and pulling out a gun to shoot at Cassandra, "A witness!" The nets are being tugged and pulled taunt to try and keep Liberty Belle captured or at least entangled. Suddenly, Markus steps out of the shadows, careful of his feet...which is oddly easy for him. "This I did not predict," he growls out in annoynace. The middle schooler is far from happy at Cassandra's interference. "Shoot the shockers!" Those that their nets failed pull out distance tasers and aim for Liberty Belle. The first level thugs are going to interfer with Cassandra...and already things aren't pretty or nice. The silent one, Cassandra, finding herself faced with the only choice of rushing headlong into the group that now poses a lethal threat to themselves and everyone around them once a gun comes out, does just that. She sees that the guy is going for a gun before he realizes he's doing it. She knows that motion too well. She lays out to avoid getting caught by one of the nets that didn't quite nab Liberty Belle, rolling out of its path and, slowed by the metal balls, has to focus on her footing. It slows her down enough that the goon has the gun in hand before she gets there. It does not slow her down enough that he's able to get a shot out before she gets there though. With focus on keeping balance, she leaps to clear the distance between herself and the gunman, reaching to take away his weapon with the sort of expertise that some people are able to pull off because they are simply superhumanly fast. She pulls it off because she has the luxury of knowing every variant of how people point guns at things in a hurry. This particular one seems smooth enough that he's done it often, so she lands low, right up against him where he will have to turn the weapon inward to tag her with a shot. She doesn't give him that opportunity, sending an uppercut into his jaw as she slaps his gun down, making it hit the floor. With the first gunman reeling into unconsciousness from her blow, she starts to deliver more knockout blows to those nearest to her. It's been two seconds since she landed at the feet of the gunman. Five men are falling to the ground including the first. Cassandra is just getting started. She gets free of the net, but this is a gauntlet. These people...know exactly how to take down a speedster, it seems. She's well aware that she has an ally. But to get her butt kicked by a bunch of kids? She's not letting that happen. A leap to the side, and then she's running up the wall, taser blasts filling the air behind her. Speedster tricks. Snag is...she isn't quite going to be able to get away, not with the nets and blasts filling the air between her and the skylight. Okay. She needs...some kind...of attack of her own. Cassandra is having her hands fulled, and these aren't all helpless like the ones in the car sales place. But still, they cannot measure up to her, but they can certainly attempt to overwhelm her. The middle schooler leader calls out, "Yank up the nets, entangle her! She's coming in fast and needs open space!" The second level people are pulling up the nets and snapping them up repeatedly to attempt to interfer and capture Liberty Belle. It is overwhelming the amount of people in this attempt, and if not for Cassandra Cain, Liberty Belle would likely realize just how dangerous the situation is. There is a way out though, even with the kid calling out orders to block your plans, they are still moving slow compared to Liberty Belle. The chaos of fighting a lot of people is not entirely out of Cassandra's area of understanding. Coordinated groups she has fought on some scale, though it has been many years. This many, and kids, means she needs to be gentler than she would with most people. She has an advantage they don't, and that advantage is more direct combat experience than probably all of them put together have seen. That and her capacity for aggregation... she can take into account and predict their movements with the sort of ease most people have with being able to read or speak. They just let the words flow into or out of their heads without needing to think about it. She does that with fighting. It flows in and out of her. The mute ally of Liberty Belle is a hard one to catch when she has awareness of what is there. Close quarters does not hinder her. Only the fragility of her opponents does. She knows the physical limits and capacity of children and young teens. Anyone older than she is gets rougher treatment, suffering actual injuries such as dislocated shoulders and painful sprains to keep them from wanting to fight. The ones she is gentler with are not harmed in any lasting manner, some with the wind knocked out of them and others given severe bruises, throat punches that lack enough force to inflict anything more than difficulty breathing for a few minutes. Cassandra is a real terror to her opponents. And even if one or two manages to get a lucky hit in, it wouldn't do the damage that Cassandra's well-trained hits can. They are beyond out of their league. The first level opponents are getting their rears handed to them! Markus is learning that things aren't working according to plan because of the interference and is already going with his backup plan, escape. He bites his lower lip nervously and eyes the air for Liberty Belle. Where is she?! Can he make his escape? Except. He can see what she's about to do, sure. But she can hear what he's saying...and react far faster than any normal human. The nets are hard to avoid, but possible by somebody with a speedster's reaction times AND the capability of flight. And she's heading straight for the leader. She'll work out who the insane martial artist kid is...later. For right now, Liberty is twisting through the nets to aim a nice punch for the middle schooler's jaw. Needless to say, she doesn't want to do PERMANENT damage, but... The last moment, the middle schooler's eyes widen, "Hel!" He doesn't quite get the last letter out, so was he cursing or asking for help? Either way, he is suddenly skidding back across small balls, and grunting with the impact before he is out cold. There is a moment of silence, a very short lived one. And when action happens again, everyone is running for the nearest exit! They just want to get away from the viligantes! A speedster is scary enough, but the short girl that is kicking everyone's butts in hand-to-hand combat without being overwhelmed? That is outright terrifying. It's like the Batman, man! In many ways, Cassandra could pass for Batman. Few words, beats people up real good, vanishes without a trace when you aren't looking... but in so many others, she could not be further. For one thing she doesn't even try to stop any of the kids from leaving. They want to leave, and retreat from this terrible act, then she has accomplished her goal. She turns attention up toward the speedster's direction, and the kid she punched out, heading toward the middleschooler to check on him. She can see he's alive. She's just concerned. As the instigator to this entire mess she is not particularly worried about his ability to function as an athlete for the next few weeks. "Z25Y(2AB)6" And Liberty returns to normal speed. At some point, the nets have given her a black eye and she's breathing harder than would be normal. "Rassum...I can't believe I fell for that. Are you alright?" That to Cassandra, no doubt. The kid is fine, but he is likely to have one heck of a headache and a bruised jaw. He is on the thin side, as if he doesn't get enough to eat. And he is going to be out cold for a while at least. There are a few groans of pain and suffering from other victims of Cassandra's fists, feet, elbows and more. Those that come too, try to merely quietly leave. One thing of note though, all of them, even the middle schooler wears a bandana with a viper outline on it, fangs hissing. Satisfied with the kid's health, mildly bothered about it but herself in no situation to properly assist him, Cassandra looks toward the young woman, sporting no visible injuries where one can see her exposed skin on her face and hands. Her clothing isn't even ripped, though it looks like it would be better fit to a male figure than her feminine one. She seems to study Liberty rather than respond to her in a verbal manner. Liberty Belle's head tilts to one side. "Let me guess. No English." Not an unreasonable assumption that the girl is foreign or something. She could also be mute, but mute without deaf is too rare for Jesse to immediately think of it. FTB... Category:Logs